This invention relates to elastic band shooting guns. More particularly, it relates to guns which shoot elastic bands in a repeating fashion.
Children have for many years shot rubber bands with their hands and fingers by placing one end of a stretched rubber band on the end of their index finger, bending the rubber band about an outstretched thumb, and securing the other end of the rubber band to an outstretched pinkie finger. The rubber band is released by the retraction of the pinkie finger.
More recently, rubber band firing toy guns have been developed which fire a plurality of rubber bands in a repeating fashion. A repeating gun pistol is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,219 issued to Miller. The Miller pistol includes a pistol grip having a spindle extending therefrom. A magazine having a plurality of elongated arms circumferentially mounted thereon is rotatably mounted on the spindle. A string which is received on a second rotating spindle is attached to a rubber band which, in turn, is received over the ends of one of the arms on the magazine. A portion of the string is then payed out the second spindle and is wrapped about the remaining arms of the magazine. Additional rubber bands are then placed over the other arms of the magazine. Upon the reeling of the string back onto the second spindle, the rubber bands are released due to the upward movement of the string.
The pistol described in the Miller patent suffers from numerous drawbacks, some of which are set forth below:
1. The rubber band receiving ends of each of the arms are at the same level so that the gun tends to shoot high; PA1 2. Because the string is attached to a rubber band and is, in turn, wrapped about the cylinder at virtually any position along the cylinder, there is no assurance that the rubber bands will fire in a forward direction, i.e. the rubber bands could backfire, injuring the shooter; PA1 3. The magazine is not permanently affixed to the remainder of the gun so that the magazine may easily fall off or be misplaced; PA1 4. The distal end of the magazine does not positively secure the rubber bands thereto, so that the rubber bands are difficult to load, and may again misfire in the direction towards the shooter; and PA1 5. The pistol is difficult to load and is cumbersome to operate.
Thus, there is a need for an improved repeating elastic band shooting gun.